


Fate of the Unknown

by Fandomaniac1214



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, Kidnapping, don't want anyone to get into this without knowing what they're getting into, in which i try to multichapter fic, much like the actual prologue it emulates tbh, okay now for the actual tags, that is definitely important to realize that it is a thing that happens, this fic starts off slow but gets a lot better once the prologue is done, will add additional tags the further this goes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-16
Updated: 2019-03-16
Packaged: 2019-11-18 23:35:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18128003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fandomaniac1214/pseuds/Fandomaniac1214
Summary: Roxas lives a normal life. It's his last summer vacation before senior year, and he is ready to spend it living the dream with his best friends.But his summer goes haywire six days in - and Roxas soon finds that things may never be the same, and he must accept his new role. In the powerful underground terror group, the Organization, you join or you die.Luckily, the heart is a powerful weapon, and even when everything seems lost, he finds hope in unexpected places.





	Fate of the Unknown

**Author's Note:**

> special thanks to my bff, who gave me the title for this monstrosity - she's @cookiedoughgecko on insta, and IcecatXV on here~ she's a great artist, you should go check out her art!
> 
> so this fic came into being a number of months ago, but it was only after i finished kh3 that i was inspired to actually work on it! expect slant spoilers by the end of this fic... though who knows how long this will take, because my motivation goes on and off.
> 
> so - i hope you enjoy!

Roxas jolted upright from a doze when he felt something hit the back of his head. He reached his hand up to the back of his head and turned around to glare at Hayner, who looked suspiciously innocent. There was a balled-up sheet of paper on the ground behind Roxas’s chair.

“Dude,” Roxas hissed.

Hayner shrugged one shoulder, a cavalier smirk on his face as he went back to his game.

“Ugh…” muttered Pence, his head dropping onto his desk with an audible _thunk_ . “The last few days of school are always so _boring_ …”

“At least it’s almost over,” said Olette, tapping him on the head with her pencil. When he didn’t move, she let out a small huff and dragged their tic-tac-toe paper from under him. “Last day of school for the year.”

“Another year gone,” said Hayner absently, not taking his eyes off his game as he threw his fist triumphantly into the air. “One year closer to freedom.”

“‘Freedom’ is a relative term,” Pence groaned. “We’ve still got college, and then _jobs_ , and then _life…_ ”

“Aw, man,” Hayner exclaimed, as his game made a sad _bweep_. “Stop getting existential! You made me lose focus!”

“Or maybe,” Roxas said sagely, “you’re just not good at the game.”

Hayner spluttered, offended, as Pence snorted and held out his fist for Roxas to bump.

“Guys… come on,” said Olette with a giggle. “Be nice.”

“Pence is right, though,” said Roxas with a hum. “It’s kinda scary, when you think about it.”

“Thank you, Roxas,” Pence sighed, reaching up his arm blindly to scrawl an _x_ into one of the tic-tac-toe squares. “I’m glad one of you understands.”

Olette rolled her eyes and filled in an _o_ in the blatantly empty third square in a row, crossing through the three circles. “I win.”

Pence raised his head to glare weakly at the page. “Crap.”

“Maybe if you actually _tried_ ,” Olette chuckled, tapping him on the head again.

“Olette,” said Hayner, once again embroiled in his game, “Pence gets like this _every year_ on the last day.”

“Just give him some time,” Roxas chuckled. “Once the bell rings he’ll be our excited puppy again.”

Pence dropped his head back onto the table and grumbled something that sounded like _I’m not an excited puppy_.

“Yeah, you are, Pence,” Roxas said, reaching over and patting him on the head. “It’s why we love you.”

Hayner cursed sharply as his game beeped again.

“Language, Hayner,” the teacher said in a bored, you’re-about-to-leave-my-class-forever-so-I-really-don’t-care tone of voice. “Come on. There’s less than fifteen minutes left. Please try to be civil.”

Hayner grumbled out a response, sitting back in his chair and putting the game in his bag. “Fine.”

Roxas smirked and falsely coughed into his hand. “Told you you were just bad.”

He earned himself a ball of paper directly in the forehead for his troubles.

“Hayner,” said Olette with an exaggerated frown. “Stop hitting Roxas with paper.”

“Fine, _Mom_.”

“If Olette’s our mom,” said Pence, “then who’s our dad?” He sat up abruptly, pointing at her dramatically. “What have you been hiding from us?”

Olette, taken aback, let out a little snort. “Pence!”

“Oh, my _God_ ,” Roxas groaned, putting his face in his hands as he struggled against a wave of laughter. “Pence, _no_.”

“Pence, _yes!_ ” said Hayner. “What _are_ you hiding from us, Olette?”

She looked at him, unimpressed. “You are aware that I’m your ride home.”

Roxas burst out laughing, leaning back in his chair.

“Wow, Olette, that was _cold_ ,” Pence said, putting his head back down on his desk. “Well done.”

“Thank you,” she said with a giggle. “Let’s play another game of tic-tac-toe?”

“And get schooled by you again? I’m all right.”

Roxas yelped and jumped up just as his chair fell backward, crashing onto the floor.

“Roxas…” came the teacher's tired admonishment after a few seconds of stunned silence. “Really?”

“Sorry about that,” he said weakly, amidst Hayner's uproarious laughter. “Leaned back too far.”

The teacher gave him an emotionless look. “I couldn't tell. Please pick your chair up.”

Roxas bent over and picked the chair off of the floor, his ears turning red as he sat back down.

“Good going,” whispered Pence with a snicker.

“Shut up.”

“Now it's your turn to tick her off, Pence,” Hayner muttered with a smirk, leaning in close. “C'mon, it's a tradition…”

“A tradition I've hated and only _accidentally_ done for the past four years,” retorted Pence. “And it's almost always ‘cause of you.”

“I agree with Pence on this one,” said Olette, tapping her pencil on her desk.

“What _tradition_?” asked Roxas with a snort. “What are you talking about?”

Hayner rolled his eyes. “Never mind. You guys are no fun.”

“ _What tradition_?”

“If you don't know about it, you're lucky,” said Pence with a dramatic grimace. “It's one of Hayner's stupid schemes.”

“Hey! My schemes are not stupid!”

“They kind of are,” said Olette with a laugh, still tapping her desk. “Especially the ones that manage to get us _all_ in trouble.”

“That's happened, like, _maybe_ once,” Hayner scoffed, crossing his arms. “You act like I _try_ to get in trouble.”

All three of them gave him identical looks.

Before he could respond, the bell finally rang, startling nearly everyone.

The teacher stood up with a sigh. “Go! Be free!”

Roxas and Hayner were already halfway to the door before the others had even left their seats. At the door, Roxas turned around and called, “Have a great summer, Ms. B!”

“You too, Roxas,” said the teacher with an almost fond eye roll and shake of her head. “Now go. And take your friends with you.”

Roxas grinned and bolted out of the room, Hayner hot on his tail.

Olette and Pence took their time to meet them outside the doors, and Pence already looked rejuvenated.

“School is over for the summer!” Hayner crowed, jumping up and pumping his fist in the air. “What are we gonna do first?”

“I wouldn't mind a _nap_ ,” mused Roxas. “School hours are the _worst_.”

Hayner gave him an incredulous look. “Dude. Seriously. What is wrong with you?”

“What? I'm _tired!_ ”

“We could always go to the beach,” said Olette. “We didn't get to go last year, remember? We promised we would this year, first chance we get.”

“Yeah, but it's too late to go _now_ ,” said Pence. “We'd only get to be there for like an hour, max, at this point in the day.”

“Yeah, you're right,” said Hayner. “The beach’s gotta be an all day thing.”

“We could go tomorrow,” said Roxas. “Make a day out of it.”

“That sounds good to me,” Pence said with a grin. “Pretzels, right?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Of course!”

“Ab-so-lutely.”

“Right. So it's settled. We go to the beach tomorrow,” said Hayner, reaching out and ticking off an imaginary checklist with his hand. “So what should we do _today_?”

Roxas held out his hands and shrugged. “Hey. I already gave you my input.”

“ _We are not sleeping on our first day of summer_ _vacation, Roxas._ ”

“ _You_ aren't, maybe, but _I_ might-”

“Oh my God!” Pence yelped.

The other three turned to look at where he was looking frantically in his bag.

“Guys, my camera's gone!”

“What?” Hayner asked. “What do you mean, it's _gone_?”

“I mean it's _gone_ ,” Pence said sharply, yanking his camera bag out of his backpack and showing them the empty contents. “I haven't touched it all day!”

“You mean someone stole it?” Olette said with a gasp. “Who'd do that?”

“Uh,” said Roxas, “have you _seen_ some of the people we go to school with?”

Pence turned white, digging through his bag again.

“Pence?” Olette asked hesitantly.

“No,” Pence moaned. “My portfolio!”

Olette gasped again. “Is it gone, too?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Pence said, putting the bags down and covering his face with his hands. “The binder's there, but the folders with all my photos are just… gone.”

“Who'd steal _photographs_?” Hayner asked incredulously.

“We'll find who did it,” Roxas said. “You've been building that up for _years_ , Pence. We'll get it back.”

Olette furrowed her brows and reached into her purse. Bringing out her wallet, she opened it and let out an emphatic noise. “My picture's gone, too!” She turned her wallet around to show off the empty picture compartment. “I had that picture of us in front of the tower here!”

Hayner patted his back pockets and pulled his wallet out. “Yeah,” he said darkly. “Mine too.”

Roxas's blood ran cold. He took his own out and immediately noticed the absence of the two photos that usually took up residence there.

“Mine are gone, too,” he said quietly. “The one of us…” He swallowed. “The one of me and my dad.”

“Oh, Roxas…” Olette said softly.

“What kind of thief _is_ this?” Hayner asked again. “How could _all_ of our photos go missing at once?”

“I guess we know what we're doing today,” said Roxas after a moment. “We gotta find our pictures and get them back.”

“First we should see if anyone else is having this problem,” said Olette. “See if it narrows down any possibilities.”

“You're right,” Hayner said. “Good thinking.”

“What if _everyone's_ photos are missing?” Pence asked. “What then?”

“Then we keep looking,” said Roxas. “There's gotta be _some_ clue to follow.”

“Well, let’s quit standing around gossiping,” said Hayner, knocking Roxas on the shoulder, “and get started!”

“Where do we even begin?” asked Pence, zipping his bookbag up and pulling it back onto his back. “This is… advanced.”

“Uhhhh…” Roxas voiced, then turned around to look at the teens still leaving the school building. “Hey! Is anyone missing photos?”

He got a few strange looks, and he distinctly heard Hayner snort behind him, but one girl stopped and searched through her purse.

After a few seconds, she shook her head and showed him her wallet, in which a photo of herself was clearly visible.

Roxas huffed irritably as she walked away. “Okay… so apparently _we_ were targeted?”

“One person isn’t good enough data to know for sure,” said Pence. “We need to get more information before we decide anything.”

“ _Hey!_ ”

Olette sighed as Hayner and Roxas bristled and spun around. “Here we go…”

“What do you want, Seifer?” Hayner growled.

“We want what you took from us,” Seifer replied coolly.

“We didn’t take _anything_ from you,” said Roxas sharply. “Leave us alone.”

“I think you did,” said Seifer, leaning in to loom over him. “Give us back our tournament photo.”

“You think _we_ stole your tournament photo?” asked Hayner with a derisive laugh. “Why would we do that?”

“Because you _lost_ ,” said Seifer. “Why else?”

“We didn’t steal your photo, Seifer,” said Olette. “Ours are missing, too. Pence’s entire portfolio is gone.”

Pence nodded, unzipping his bag again and showing Seifer the empty binder.

He glared at them for a few seconds longer, then abruptly turned around and stalked away.

“Doesn’t like to admit when he’s wrong, that one,” said Pence wisely.

“Call me crazy,” said Hayner without further comment, “but… haven’t _all_ the photos that have been stolen been of Roxas?”

“What?” Roxas said. “Where’d you get that idea?”

“ _You_ were in that tournament photo…” said Olette slowly. “Not any of us. That girl had a picture of herself, and it was fine.”

Pence flipped through his empty folders and made a sound like he had been sucker punched. He pulled out a single photo and showed it to the others.

“Just us three,” he said weakly. “ _You_ took this picture, Roxas. When we went to the falls. All the others are of just you three or all four of us.”

“Wait,” said Hayner with a grin. “Pence, you sap, are _we_ the subject of your portfolio?”

“Could we maybe talk about that _later_ ?” asked Roxas, his voice noticeably shaking. “Are you guys saying that someone is targeting _me_?”

“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” said Pence. “We need more data.”

“My data says I need to look over my shoulder for the rest of my life,” said Roxas, feeling distinctly queasy.

Olette patted him on the arm. “We’ll get to the bottom of this, Roxas, don’t worry.”

“Besides,” said Hayner, slinging an arm around his shoulders. “What person would wanna steal photos of this moron?”

“Oh, thanks!”

 

“Sorry we couldn’t find your photos, Pence,” said Olette, taking the ice cream sundaes out of her cooler and passing them around. A chorus of “thank you”s echoed around the circle as she sat down in her spot, opening the box containing her still-cold sundae and taking a bite.

“Yeah,” said Hayner, somehow managing to sound sympathetic despite the fact that he was enthusiastically licking his lips as he stared greedily down at his ice cream. Olette rolled her eyes at him.

Pence made a sound of discomfort, opening his as well and stirring it around slightly.

Roxas stared down at his box silently as it made his hands grow colder.

“Roxas?”

He jumped slightly to see all three of them staring at him, concerned.

“Sorry, did you say something?”

“We were talking about our plan of attack tomorrow,” said Pence. “I say we still go to the beach, and they were arguing with me about it.”

“We need to find those photos!” said Hayner loudly. “We need to get to the bottom of this!”

Olette patted Roxas on the leg softly. “And I know this is worrying you, too.”

“All the people who were missing photos that we talked to today,” said Roxas quietly. “Every last one of them. They were of me.”

Olette made a soft sound and moved her hand to squeeze his. “It’s creepy. I agree, we need to figure this out.”

Pence sighed and took out his binder, opening it. Then he let out a strange-sounding squawk.

“What is it?” Olette asked.

“They’re back.”

“What?” Hayner exclaimed sharply, sitting up straighter and almost glaring across the rooftop at Pence. “What are you talking about?”

Wordlessly, Pence turned the binder around to face the others. It was full of pictures.

Roxas stared blankly at it for a few seconds, then dove his hand into his jeans and yanked out his wallet.

There, sitting peacefully where it belonged, was the photograph of him and his father. The photo of the four of them was right under it, as always.

Hayner cursed. “There’s no way.”

“That’s impossible,” said Roxas. “They were gone… Right?”

“So!” said Pence, sounding distinctly disturbed. “How about… we pretend this never happened, and go to the beach tomorrow, because I’m _really_ starting to get creeped out.”

“Pence…” sighed Olette, crossing her arms.

“No,” said Roxas. “He’s right. The pictures… they’re back, right? So we don’t need to worry?”

The three of them looked at him, their faces almost identically troubled.

“Let’s go to the beach,” Roxas said. “We promised we’d go last year, and we didn’t. Let’s just go, and have fun. If anything weird happens there, we’ll get to the bottom of it. Okay?”

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Pence asked. “You seemed really disturbed earlier.”

“Yeah,” said Roxas with an attempt at an easygoing grin. “Don’t worry. It’ll take a lot more than that to get me.”

**Author's Note:**

> i'm @soras-noodle-arms on tumblr!


End file.
